Atomic-level insights in blood clotting

Patients who suffer from the autoimmune disease antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) develop thrombosis (blood clots) in all of their blood vessels.

Because the immune system attacks phospholipids – the building blocks of cell membranes – the blood does not coagulate as it should. However, the body does not make antibodies against the phospholipids themselves but against the blood proteins bound to these. One of these proteins is beta 2-glycoprotein I. PhD candidate Menno van Lummel has shown how the protein responds to antibodies and causes the immune reaction at an atomic level. These insights are essential for developing ways to combat this disease in the future.

Van Lummel was awarded a PhD from Utrecht University on September 7. His thesis is called 'The role of the low-density lipoprotein receptor family in the pathology of the antiphospholipid syndrome'.